National Anthem
by Victoria Kathleen Wright
Summary: "It's a love story for the new age, for the six page. Want a sick, quick rampage?"


**NATIONAL ANTHEM**

* * *

_Money is the anthem of success _

_So before we go out _

_What's your address?_

The Muggle photo is black-and-white, frayed at the edges, even though it wasn't taken long ago.

In it the man and woman look out, her arms around his neck and his hands around her waist, but neither of them look at each other. They're smiling, but not at each other, instead they smile out towards the photographer, showing the world yet again that they don't give a fuck; they don't need to.

They're who they are. The 'M' for Malfoy on the elaborate gate stands out clear as day. But the girl's eyes are drawn to the woman. Her clothing looks almost ridiculously expensive. She remembers reading that the Malfoys, and especially _her_, the photograph-woman, were criticized by the public for their lavishness when in power despite the suffering in the world. And yet, weren't they the most loved family ever?

She looks back at the photo, spread among thousands of others lying on the floor around her.

_I'm your National Anthem _

_God, you're so handsome _

_Take me to the Hamptons _

_Bugatti Veyron_

The woman on screen has chestnut hair with only a fading tint of red, a metaphor for how the girl she once was has almost been completely lost. She stands among roses and in front of the flag, speaking on behalf of her husband, currently in an important business meeting. Your eyes can't leave her, she's so enrapturing, such a tragic beauty. But you all know it's her fault.

She gave up all her heroic glory, her family, just to come to power as the young Malfoy's wife. You choose not to realize that her eyes are sharp, that the pearl necklace she's wearing is not bought by her husband's insurmountable wealth, spent as recklessly as she chooses, but instead an old family heirloom, given to her on the day of their engagement.

It doesn't matter, though, because she actually only is wearing it because it sparkles in the sunlight.

A week after this speech, she is caught spending thousands on an extravagant collection of wines.

_He loves to romance them_

_ Reckless abandon _

_Holdin' me for ransom _

_Upper echelon_

Soon after the war, it was determined that the young Malfoy had changed. He may still be rich, but he had a good heart. He had to. Nobody could go through the war without realizing that Harry Potter's way was the right way. Right? Right.

And, of course, he was handsome and he was rich - great celebrity material.

So when he runs for Minister at the tender age of twenty-four after living the good, clean lawyer of an attorney, he wins.

The day before his inauguration, he marries his secret fiancee, Ginevra Weasley.

He remains at the top of Witch Weekly's Bachelor List until two years later, when the editor suddenly has to resign.

The magazine's still fond of Minister Draco, but Ginevra Malfoy no longer ever appears in its pages.

_He says to be cool _

_but I don't know how yet _

_Wind in my hair _

_Hand on the back of my neck _

_I said, Can we party later on? _

_He said, Yes, yes, yes_

At the Inauguration Ball, Ginevra Malfoy is highly criticized for a wardrobe malfunction that results in her leaving halfway through the event.

Never again does she make a mistake.

At anything.

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Ooh, yeah, baby, bow down _

_Making me so wow, wow) _

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Sugar, sugar, how now _

_Take your body down town) _

_Red, white, blue's in the sky _

_Summer's in the air and Baby, _

_Heaven's in your eyes _

_I'm your National Anthem_

They hate her, the traitor, and he garners mostly positive reviews.

But together? They are perfection.

They could have sex on the back of their convertible (and have come quite close to it, in fact, much to the pleasure of the media), and their ratings would only go up.

They're beyond loved. They're a fucking god and goddess.

_Money is the reason _

_We exist _

_Everybody knows it, it's a fact _

_Kiss, kiss_

And since they're just generally so untouchable, there's only a small uproar when he's implicated in a smuggling ring and when she poses naked for a male artist, especially when her dear husband gives it a thumbs-up.

_I sing the National Anthem _

_While I'm standing over your body _

_Hold you like a python _

_And you can't keep your hands off me _

_Or your pants on _

_See what you've done to me _

_King of Chevron_

They're always touching. Long after their marriage has died for them, they keep it barely breathing by using the excuse of an audience to keep his hands on her ass, her hands around his neck, her lips on his.

At night, in separate beds, they remember the days she'd give him a lap dance, laughing, and he'd turn her around and run his hands all over her body while they swayed to the music.

_He said to be cool but _

_I'm already coolest _

_I said Get real, _

_Don't you know who you're dealing with?_

_Um, do you think you'll buy me lots of diamonds?_

By the time she becomes the perfect wife he always wanted, she only remains his wife in name and in her loyalty.

Not once has she bedded anyone else (despite the fact that she knows he has) and not once has she acknowledged her family in years, publicly or privately.

She begins to drown herself in what she thought she always wanted: attention, money, drugs, wine, power, and perfection.

They don't have rehab for that. And even if they did, she would have never gone.

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Ooh, yeah, baby, bow down _

_Making me so wow, wow) _

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Sugar, sugar, how now _

_Take your body down town) _

_Red, white, blue's in the sky _

_Summer's in the air and Baby, _

_Heaven's in your eyes _

_I'm your National Anthem_

Then, three years after the last time they've truly smiled at each other, she announces she's pregnant.

He asks her who the father is, and the fight following lasts until William and Mark Malfoy are born.

Of course, the pictures that appear in the newspapers during that time show them in the summer wrapped around each other, him kissing her stomach on his birthday while she, happy and carefree as she's ever looked, feeds him cake.

They're both the most brilliant actors.

_It's a love story for the new age _

_For the six page _

_Want a quick sick rampage?_

_Wining and dining _

_Drinking and driving _

_Excessive buying _

_Overdose and dyin' _

_On our drugs and our love _

_And our dreams and our rage _

_Blurring the lines between real and the fake _

_Dark and lonely _

_I need somebody to hold me _

_He will do very well _

_I can tell, I can tell _

_Keep me safe in his bell tower, hotel_

After, she's sitting in a small cafe, the twins in school, when Blaise Zabini, artist extraordinaire, sits across from her, the one the world's avoiding like a leper, even though she's splashed across every newspaper page being proclaimed a courageous heroine.

He makes her laugh for the first time in a year when he tells her that she's the ugliest woman he's ever seen.

Six months later, they are married in his French villa.

_Money is the anthem of success _

_So put on mascara, _

_and your party dress_

Ginevra cuts her long, silky hair soon after the birth of her little boys. Draco tells her it looks beautiful, even though he always used to tell her he loved her hair long. That day, she realizes she can take the comment two ways: one, he no longer cares or, two, he still cares about her feelings the way he did when he gathered her up from the alley and spoke to her kindly for the first time years ago.

She goes out and buys thousands of Galleons worth of baby clothes to keep from coming to a decision.

_I'm your National Anthem _

_Boy, put your hands up _

_Give me a standing ovation _

_Boy, you have landed _

_Babe, in the land of_

_ Sweetness and Danger _

_Queen of Saigon_

Soon enough, she's his PR, secretary, and everything. He no longer needs anyone else. They never speak anymore, except to talk of business. The press assumes she's still that lazy, lavish golddigger. He remains silent on the subject, wondering all the time why she works free of charge, credit, or love that she can recognize.

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Ooh, yeah, baby, bow down _

_Making me so wow, wow) _

_Tell me I'm your National Anthem _

_(Sugar, sugar, how now _

_Take your body down town) _

_Red, white, blue's in the sky _

_Summer's in the air and Baby, _

_Heaven's in your eyes _

_I'm your National Anthem_

The day he dies, it's a parade they're in. The happiness and glory surrounding them is just so comfortable and nostalgic that they've smiled at each other and his heart is thudding with triumph and the ice surrounding her heart has cracked just a little. He turns to _actually_ speak to her for the first time in a year since he last told her she was beautiful.

She can sense the bullet a moment before it comes and lodges itself through his head, spraying her with _his_ blood. There's only a moment between it and her climbing to the back of the car, calling for security.

Lillian Zabini looks on at the famous footage of her mother, poised and perfect as always, but what she sees that the others don't is the pure hauntedness behind Ginevra Malfoy's eyes.

She looks back at the photo in her hand, her mother and her first husband, curled around each other but with their eyes facing away, always away. Even then, she thinks she never has seen her mother so alive.

_Money is the anthem God, you're so handsome _

_Money is the anthem _

_Of success _

_Money is the anthem God, you're so handsome _

_Money is the anthem _

_Of success _

_Money is the anthem God, you're so handsome _

_Money is the anthem _

_Of success _

_Money is the anthem God, you're so handsome _

_Money is the anthem _

_Of success_

**_October 26, 2022 - Ginevra Malfoy's Diary_**

_It's the tenth anniversary of that day. Don't forget. You can never forget him._

_So, instead, I'll try to remember._

_And I remember when I met him it was so clear that he was the only one for me._

_We both knew it right away._

_But as the years went on, things got more difficult; we were faced with more challenges._

_I begged him to stay, try to remember what we had in the beginning._

_He was charismatic, magnetic, electric and everybody knew it. When he walked in, ever woman'ss head turned, everyone stood up to talk to him. He was like this hybrid, this mix of a man who couldn't contain himself._

_I always got the sense that he became torn between being a good person and missing out on all of the opportunities that life could offer a man as magnificent as him._

_In that way, I understood him. And I loved him, I loved him, I loved him._

_._

_._

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_._

_._

_And I still love him._

* * *

**xxx Thanks for reading.**

**Go ahead and review, why don't you?**

**Love, Toria**

**P.S. _(Disclaimer: All italicized words belong to Lana Del Ray and her associates;_**

_**The world of Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling)**_

_**My love to the both of them.**_

_**Also, how many of you would be interested in reading a songfic like this on Snape? (It'll be way more canon.)**_

_**Thanks again. **_


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